Many or most medical syringes nowadays are intended for single use only, and for disposal promptly thereafter, to guard against the possibility of contaminating a subsequent patient or a health care professional with the blood of any patient or with any residual medication in the syringe. Where a medication comprises radioactive material, special care must be taken to prevent not only leakage of blood or medication liquid from the syringe but also exposure of the surroundings to radiation.
Collective disposal of used syringes with their needles (and other "sharps" such as scalpels and stitch cutters) is known, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. to Haniff 4,657,139; and McCarthy 5,273,221. The trend toward one-time usage is conducive to immediate individual disposal, for which packages are known, as in Clanton 4,979,616 and in Yates et al. 5,293,616. Such one-syringe packages are bulkier than those for new syringes, as in Windischman 4,106,622 and in Cuu 4,634,428. Yet packaging of new syringes lacks provision for syringe disposal, so a new package is not convertible to a disposal package. Reich U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,931 teaches a two-part inner container useful within an outer two-part radiation-shielding container wherein (i) a filled syringe can be shipped along with the lower part (only) of the inner container, (ii) the used syringe can be reshipped after capping the inner container--which itself provides inadequate leak-resistance.
Hence, a need exists for fluid leakproof disposal packages to hold individual filled and used syringes, and a related need exists for radiation shielding in the packaging of such syringes containing radiopharmaceutical medications and, after use, their residues. The present invention undertakes to meet these and related necessities.